Passat - price difference

Green&Red

So I'm looking at Passat station wagons. Three popped up that are suitable.

Two are 2012, €19.5k, 30k miles give or take, both from dealers, both UK imports.

The third is 2013, €19.5k, 11k miles, private, rang him and he says he sells some cars, it's a UK import, was a company car on lease.

My question is, what gives??

Quin_Dub

Green&Red wrote: »

So I'm looking at Passat station wagons. Three popped up that are suitable.

Two are 2012, €19.5k, 30k miles give or take, both from dealers, both UK imports.

The third is 2013, €19.5k, 11k miles, private, rang him and he says he sells some cars, it's a UK import, was a company car on lease.

My question is, what gives??

The "private" sale is a dealer trying to sell the car privately and as such avoid giving or paying for any warranty as he'd have to were he to sell it properly..

He may think that he's covered as a 2013 would still be under manufacturers warranty , but bottom line if he "sells some cars" he's a dealer and is supposed to sell them as such..

bazz26

Is the guy selling cars on the QT including VRT in this price? I'd put money on it not and he will tell you to VRT it yourself. I'd also scrutinize the service history on any nearly 2 year old ex UK company car with only 11k miles on the clock being sold cheap.

Green&Red

So I went and saw the car. Asked about crashes, he said yes, tip with the bumper and one head light replaced, car was returned from lease hire at that stage. Car drove perfectly but it's hard to know.
Would a car check be sufficient to ease fears?

On another note, am I right in thinking that the numbers on all four windows should be the same?

bazz26

There are lots of these cars for sale, why settle for one with a questionable history?

Seamus1964

Piece of advice - bring a good mechanic with you.
Will cost you possibly between 30-50 euro and you will get all your answers right.
If you don't know much about cars you can be tricked one or another way. Been there, done that.

Green&Red

bazz26 wrote: »

There are lots of these cars for sale, why settle for one with a questionable history?

Because it's a lot cheaper

My plan was to get a mechanic to give it the once over before I decided

bazz26

Green&Red wrote: »

Because it's a lot cheaper

My plan was to get a mechanic to give it the once over before I decided

Have you asked yourself why that is? It's very easy to be blinded by a so called bargain and end up getting duped. Your spending over €19k here and you have zero comeback once you hand over the money.

It's a panel beater I would getting to look it over too, to make sure the so called tip to the bumper and replacement headlight are the only things wrong with it. If something sounds too good to be true then it usually is.